September and October 2009

I'm still catching up on last year's mail bag, so let's take a quick look at the messages you posted in September, otherwise known as Couch Potato Month, and October, otherwise known as Halloween Month. We sure do like our themed months here at The Dreamersedge, otherwise known as the website that answers its mail incredibly late... Month.

New readers may be wondering just what in hell Couch Potato Month is meant to be. Well, tough. Here's what people had to say about our Couch Potato Week podcast series, which took an in-depth look at the fall television grid. By the way, I'm disappointed no one commented on my review of Another Cinderella Story.

I like Castle a lot. CW shows are craps.

K.J.

Ah, craps: the dice game that doesn't require a snot-nosed dungeon master. I'm not sure what you mean about the CW shows though. Are you saying that the network is gambling with its series, that the latter are the worst possible outcome in a game of chance, that the silent G.I. Joe Snake Eyes is meant to make a guest appearance on Smallville? Now, that would be cool. Maybe he can concince some of the characters to take a vow of silence, or maybe just a vow of stop-whining. I like Castle too.

Our next comment is from regular poster Applepie.

Definitely FOX on Tuesday.

Applepie

Yeah, I too am crazy about So You Think You Can Dance. It's a testament to the show's pure awesomeness that it remained as entertaining as ever in spite of everything going wrong this season: preempted result shows, that weird Paula Abdul thing, two contestants dropping from the competition, three more forced to skip on their performances because of injury, live technical issues, Ryan's solos, no Jeanine... Kathryn should have won though. Oh, well, at least it wasn't Tara Jean. Curse you, So You Think You Can Dance Canada!

Instead of phoning home, E.T. apparently watched the tube.

Totally agree with Dimitri about CSI:NY. This show just becomes ridiculous after the first season.

E.T.

Blame the fans. The first season of CSI: NY offered a unique vision of the Big Apple, one filled with post 9/11 anguish and melancholy. It was a moving portrayal of a city in mourning, but viewers complained it was too depressing, prompting CBS to impose radical changes on the series. Production heads were booted, writers replaced, and the second CSI spinoff lost just about everything that made it relevant. I mean, God forbid a television show about crime and murder should be sad! I wonder how Gary Sinise feels about the whole thing. In my mind, he's shaking his head at the pandering network executives. Then he shoots them all in the back of the head to spare them Curley's vengeful wrath.

Instead or running away from walkie-talkies, E.T. also commented on the Go Space Thought of the Month for September 2009.

Funny. Josh just looks like someone I know.

E.T.

Little known fact: I originally based Josh on Pacey from Dawson's Creek and then slowly moved the design away from him to make it more distinctive. The question therefore becomes, does your friends look like Canadian actor Joshua Jackson, or is he distinctive?

We now move from television to the darkness that lurks within us all. Given the increasing number of reality shows, I'll admit that's not much of a trek, but I had to find some way to segue from Couch Potato Month to horror fiction. You see, every DE Podcast in October focused on a different period in the history of scary movies. We called the three-part special A Brief History of Gore because that's how little wit we have. Just ask Ryan the Destroyer.

No offense but kazum needs to stop acting like her farts smell better than everyone else and stop talking over denis, he actually has things to say other than repeat what dimitri just said with a fake English accent. IMO its better just denis and dimitri.

Ryan the Destroyer

Hi, Ryan. Thank you for your honest feedback. I think you might have slightly misread Kazim's tone and intent, but everyone involved with the DE Podcast agrees the show in general has room for improvement. Please keep in mind this is our first audio series and we're all learning as we go along. Now, as you know, the podcast is currently on hiatus. When it returns next week, expect some major changes: new format, new timetable, new hosts, and, yes, less Kazooney. This has little to do with your comment, I'll confess, though I did convey your issues to her. We're just trying out different dynamics based on our increasingly difficult schedules.

This next comment addresses the final part of our Halloween podcast series, From Ghost Face to Jigsaw.

In the last decade, the majority of scary movies just show physical and mental suffering and pain, the public love that kind of fear. But it is just repulsive.

Mmax

I know what you mean, Mmax, though, in fairness to all the modern horror fans out there, I should point out repulsion is, in fact, an integral part of horror. The thing I resent about movies like The Devil's Reject, Saw, Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, Saw V, and Saw: Attack of the Clones is the nihilist context in which all that pain and anguish is presented. As some of you have surely noticed, I have a certain degree of tolerance when it comes to cinematic exploitation, but it's as if the filmmakers were trying to pass theirs off as some sort of artistic expression or, worse, moral imperative. Last I checked the saying went, "Stop and smell the roses", not, "Gouge your eyes out and prick the sockets with a rose's thorns while squeezing your testicles with rusty pliers." Maybe I just miss the days of yore when monsters didn't take themselves so seriously and good guys were allowed to win once in a while.

On the subject of an old-school approach to horror, here's what you all had to say about Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat.

I've seen this film last summer in the Montreal Fantasia Festival. Liked the experience. liked the film even more.

E.T.

Fantasia, for those of you wondering what Mickey Mouse and a bunch of brooms have to do with Dougherty's Halloween anthology, is a Montreal-based fim festival that onced specialised in Asian cinema but now features fantasy flicks from around the globe. It's where I got to discover such gems as Hard Boiled (1992), Green Snake (1993), Drunken Master II (1994), The Blade (1995), God of Cookery(1996), Perfect Blue (1997), Ringu (1998), Attack the Gas Station (1999), Boogiepop Phantom (2000), Millennium Actress (2001), Blessing Bell (2002), A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), Spirits (2004), and, of course, Trick 'r Treat (2008).

In case you're wondering, yes, I skipped some of the more recent years. I just miss the days of yore at the Imperial theatre, which, more recent attendees will be amazed to learn, did not smell like the urine of drunk Concordia students.

Yep! Not impressed by the special effects, but good stories. Like it too.

Brutus

Though they're undeniably clunky at times, I actually like Dougherty's use of practical effects. At the moment, rubber limbs and animatronic puppets are still better suited to horror cinema than computer animation, which I find too smooth and systematic in its movement to be confused with real life. The increasingly subtle difference isn't as much of an issue in fantasy epics, which rely on the spectacular instead of the familiar and already require tremendous suspension of disbelief, but a scary movie is a more delicate creature. To be effective, it has to draw you in, make you believe in its disturbing universe on a visceral level. That's hard to do when your characters turn into bouncy cartoon figures every time something bad happens to them. Maybe I just miss the days of yore before zombies became seasoned tai chi masters.

The stories are childish, the characters predictable. Average.

Opium 6

Thanks for your comment, Opium6. Obviously, our opinions of Trick 'r Treat differ quite a bit, but what I find interesting is that you consider childish stories and predictable characters the average. Have cinematic standards degenerated so? I guess I miss the days of yore when Hollywood produced adult stories with unpredictable characters... You know, that doesn't sound terribly enticing either.

Brrrr...horror movies.

Alice

I miss the days of yore before movie theatres started cranking up the AC in mid January.

Who cares about the special effects in that classic type scary movies? Of course, the plots are simple, like most scary tales. The scenarios are well executed and the movie is fun to watch. A very appropriate film to watch with a bunch of friends in the upcoming Halloween night. Trust me.

Mmax

I miss the days of yore when I trusted you, Mmax.

Well, that's it for this edition of DE Expressions. Please keep sending your comments. I do read them all.

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